Scientists look to the ocean for new drugs

SAN DIEGO, March 24 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists are developing technologies aimed at using marine organisms to produce natural biomedicines to treat various diseases, such as cancer.

Two studies by Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers at the University of California-San Diego, each involving mass spectrometry, are being used to identify potent natural marine compounds.

The research is led by William Gerwick of the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps and Pieter Dorrestein of University of California-San Diego's Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The scientists have used a new mass spectrometry technique to investigate the inner workings of marine organisms.

"Sea hares, for example, eat cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and we know for a fact that they assimilate their chemistry," said Gerwick. "With sponges, there are communities of organisms living within them. What we need to find out is: within those communities, who really possesses the genes to make the critical compounds?

"That's a fundamental question with lots of implications," he added. "It's been very difficult to answer, but now we are showing that mass spectrometry offers some new ways to interrogate these kinds of issues."

The research is detailed in two journals: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Molecular Biosystems.